While Locals Fear For Their Lives, Insensitive Social Media Users Pose In Front Of Erupting Volcano

Bali’s erupting volcano has Instagram is blowing up with photos of tone-deaf travelers posing in front of it. These insensitive social media stars at Mount Agung, in the eastern swath of the popular Indonesian vacation destination, while it spews out plumes of gray smoke in the background.

Because of the volcano’s tremors, more than 100,000 locals have been forced to evacuate their homes and shut down the airport for three days, stranding some 60,000 fliers. The possibility of a complete eruption still looms. In the meantime, billowing lava, ash, sulfur, and carbon dioxide emissions pose a threat to air quality and agriculture, among other risks.

The most egregious example just might be of a woman wearing a bathing suit while she gazes over the edge of an infinity pool towards the active volcano.

According to an extensive search of Instagram photos tagged near Mount Agung, this particularly photogenic swimming pool vantage point doesn’t appear again. Even if this image is doctored in some way to maximize visual impact, the point is that social media user @MariBuhma apparently thinks it’s okay to turn a natural disaster into a sexy photo shoot opportunity.

Some Bali visitors posted photos of the volcano on its own and added messages of hope and prayer for the island.

The offensive ones commit one or more of the following crimes: jumping, using heavy filters, wearing giant smiles, flaunting bare skin in skimpy outfits, contorting in yoga asanas and exhibiting over-the-top PDA. It’s unacceptable for Instagrammers to insert themselves into the scene and strike a pose.